I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Testing the pH Level of Soil

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on April 15, 2013 · 2 Comments

Have you ever had your soil tested? I recently tested mine with this super simple Luster Leaf pH Soil Testing Kit. Basically, you just need soil samples and distilled water. To do the test, dig a couple of holes {the test comes with 10 capsules for testing} in your garden about 6″-8″ deep, collect some dirt, and put it into the provided test kit, as per the instructions. Top it off with distilled water, and voila: the pH of your garden.

pH testing your garden soil can save you tons of money. It basically tells you exactly how to amend you soil so that you don’t have to guess. You can waste a lot of money on fertilizers, etc. with zero benefits, because all you needed to do is change to pH of your soil. Raising or lowering your pH is a fairly simple and cheap task, to make soil more acidic, add finely ground limestone. To make soil more alkaline, add gympsum or ground sulfur.